


roots of a vine

by Alphinia



Category: Fate: The Winx Saga (TV), Winx Club
Genre: Botany nerd Riven, F/M, Getting Together, Jealous! riven, Riven has a giant crush on Musa and deals with it poorly, Rivusa, seriously it's just a whole bunch of idiots flirting, somehow this got very soft idk how that happened
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-27
Updated: 2021-02-27
Packaged: 2021-03-18 02:16:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,820
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29726817
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alphinia/pseuds/Alphinia
Summary: “Wouldn’t be using us to blow off your TA duties, would you?” Musa asked, tilting her chin up at him.“Talking to first years is exactly my TA duties,” Riven shot back. He was close to her ear, and he didn’t miss the way she shifted as he spoke, like maybe it had some sort of effect on her.If only he had half the effect on her that she had on him.__________________________OR Riven thinks he and Musa would have a fantastic shag. Becoming the TA for her Botany class is a totally normal, non pathetic way to go about making that happen.
Relationships: Musa/Riven (Fate: The Winx Sage), Musa/Riven (Winx Club)
Comments: 24
Kudos: 175





	roots of a vine

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not quite sure what this is. Self indulgent nonsense, but I hope you all enjoy! (Hardly edited I must warn you).

Riven had never imagined he’d be here, sat beside Harvey’s desk like some fucking teacher’s pet. Ten minutes before classes started, no less.

He tipped his chair back on two legs, hands propped behind his head, and Harvey eyed him beadily over his glasses, like he was a rabid dog about to bite. No doubt he hadn’t expected this outcome when Dowling had laid out Riven’s options at the turn of the semester.

_Either you keep busy and prove you’re here for the right reasons or you’re expelled._

Beatrix was long gone now that Dowling was back, but they’d taken pity on Riven and Dane, knowing there was an element of mental manipulation at play when it came to any snooping they’d done for Rosalind. Stupid as shit of them, in Riven’s opinion, but he grasped for any excuse to stay. He hated it here, hated a lot of things, but leaving was worse. Leaving meant saying goodbye to a few people he wasn’t entirely ready to let go of yet, even though he’d rather have his teeth pulled with bloody pliers than admit it.

Riven had been offered assisting positions with either Silva or one of Harvey’s first year Botany sessions, as he’d had exemplary grades in that class. When he snatched up Botany, there had been double takes from the professors in the room.

He normally didn’t like to acknowledge how much information he’d retained listening to Terra yammer on and on about her fucking plants during his first few months at Alfea. How he’d even sleuthed through information for himself, in his down time, because he’d had exactly no life to speak of.

But as with most things he did, Riven had an ulterior motive.

He could deal with playing nice and helping some idiots pot their plants. He didn’t _plan_ to spend most of his time doing that, but he would do what he could to skate by and avoid getting kicked out of the position.

Riven was having a grand time, looking forward to what else was coming his way, until the clock ticked down to six minutes before class and Sam Fucking Harvey slumped through the wall and plopped down on the other side of his father.

Riven’s chair clanked to the ground, back on all fours.

Professor Harvey jumped, a few of his papers scattering to the ground. “Sam! We’ve discussed doing that at school.”

“Oops. I forgot,” Sam said, hardly shooting Riven a quizzical glance before setting his bag down.

Harvey fumbled for the papers, and if Riven was a nicer person, maybe he would’ve reached down to help him. He was preoccupied mentally wiling Sam to fade away into oblivion, back through his little wall.

“Oh,” Harvey said, awkward as always. “Sam, Riven. Riven, Sam. You two will be joint TAs this semester.”

And _fuck_ , no.

Sam gave a slightly uncomfortable little inclination of his head, but his mouth formed a crooked grin, like some stupid fucking golden retriever begging for scraps. “Yeah. We know each other.”

Riven leveled Sam with his best _I am higher than you on the food chain_ glare as the first years in the class gradually started to trickle in. Dimly, he realized he’d forgotten his plan of retreating to the back of the class where he knew _she_ would sit, but Sam Harvey was blasting every aspect of his plan to smithereens. There had hardly been shreds of one to begin with, but whatever he’d had was certainly gone.

Riven had seen Sam around school since last year, but he’d never given enough fucks to even learn his name until a few months ago. Mostly, he still pretended he didn’t know it, just because he could.

Unlike the rest of his family, Sam was annoyingly unshaken by the fact that he was predisposed to be a loser, had somehow missed out on the awkwardness. He was almost _cool_ , by nerd standards, in a way that nerd Riven had never breached.

But maybe that was just what _she_ liked. Someone who was effortlessly at ease, unlike Riven, who had to push and shove and lash out just so people looked at him in annoyance rather than pity. Riven hated him for that.

The sound of Terra’s voice, loud and grating as always, pulled him out of his one sided scowling contest.

“I think we’re going to start the Venus Fly Orchid—My dad didn’t say, exactly, because he likes to keep things fair, you know, but I overheard him saying something about hypnosis droughts, and we could overlap with Poisons—“

Riven didn’t really give a fuck about Terra. Or, he kind of did—he’d been trying to play nice recently and he wouldn’t _hate_ being friendly with her again—but she wasn’t the object of his interest. Wherever Terra was, the rest of her suite would follow. Sure enough, there the whole group was, some listening to her babbling more than others. Musa trailed in the back, the hint of a smile playing at her lips even as she adjusted her headphones.

They’d managed to become something like friends, what with Sky dragging him along behind he and Bloom to group gatherings. He and Musa, that was. And sometimes, Riven thought they _something_ like flirted, but he didn’t know what the fuck he was doing. Had never balanced flirting with any semblance of a relationship outside of it, and it left his head spinning more often than not. He’d been- sort of been- chasing after her for months; hoping for a good lay, he told himself, until she smiled at him and he forgot his own name.

And the idea that she might see, might _know_ …

She didn’t notice him at first, as she settled her things in the back corner just like he’d predicted, and Riven tried to temper the sense of offense rearing inside him. But then she looked up, eyebrows pinched together cutely and a bemused smile toying at her lips.

She had no idea why he was here. It was a reasonable thing to be confused about, but all Riven cared about was that her eyes were on him. He was even more pleased that she didn’t seem to register Harvey Junior’s presence.

He stretched in his seat, making sure to put his impressive biceps on display. Some dirt under his fingernails was definitely worth this.

Harvey spewed some bullshit to the class, and Riven only half listened. He watched Musa, mostly, who watched Aisha lean in and whisper aggressively to Bloom about him. Bloom shrugged, and then the class was rising to their feet, headed for the lab tables in the greenhouse. Harvey liked to keep things hands on whenever possible, so lab and lecture days often overlapped.

Riven debated letting Musa come to him for all of three seconds before he was lengthening his strides to catch up with her. Sam fucking Harvey was at the front of the class with his dad, helping him sort through keys for the one to the greenhouse, and he wasn’t going to wait for him to pull back and chat with the girls. He and Musa had called it off over two months ago, but they had some sickly idea of remaining _friends_. Because of course they fucking did.

In Riven’s opinion, Sam was most likely hoping to press his luck getting back in Musa’s pants. She’d kicked his shin under the table the last time he’d sent her knowing expressions about this, though, so he hadn’t pressed his luck again.

Once he was in range, Riven reached up, catching a lock of her pigtail between his fingers, and gave a little tug. “Excited to get to your little class?”

Musa spun to face him. “What the hell are _you_ doing here?”

Her eyebrows had popped up, but there was something a little pleased dancing in her eyes. They were dark and beautiful, devoid of the purple glow that overtook them when her powers were sensing something particularly strong. He knew she’d been working on keeping it under control lately, and it seemed she was doing an impressive job at it.

Riven leaned down further in her space, partly because he liked to see if he could make her squirm, but mostly to get a whiff of her light, something-floral perfume. He pretended to think it over. 

“Hm. Dowling’s idea of a pop on the wrist.”

“So you’re in the clear then? That’s great news.” Musa elbow bumped him. Riven’s expression must have been as smug as he was feeling, because she quickly added, “Even though it means I have to put up with you for another year.”

“Looks like it, yeah.”

Riven tried to force down his enthusiasm at the fact that she was there, standing next to him and seeming so fucking satisfied with the fact that he was _staying_. Better at respecting his boundaries she was, perfect at it she was not. He focused on Aisha, who was shooting them skeptical looks from two people over, on Harvey Junior as he took the keys from his dad and forced the door open, on _anything_ but what Musa was stirring in him.

They followed the sea of people moving forward, and Musa glanced from him to the professor and back again. Her grin was close to bursting, like him being a TA was one of the funniest things to happen to her all year. “This is going to be good.”

Yes. Yes it was, Riven hoped, attention catching on the way her sweater hung off her collarbones.

The first years paired off for their tables, where Riven had already set out their materials (Where had fucking Sam Harvey been when he was doing the grunt work, anyway?). Bloom and Aisha formed a group, along with Musa and Terra.

Riven cursed his luck. Give it to fucking Terra to cockblock him. There was no way Musa was going to need to call him over for questions with _her_ seated beside her.

Harvey launched into another spiel that Riven mostly ignored; it wasn’t like the greenhouse hadn’t been his near second home at one point, anyway, even though Riven mostly tried to forget that had ever happened. There was something about how the students should go to the TAs for any questions, and for the first time he could ever remember, Sam Harvey’s presence had an upside. The idiots in the class would find him a lot more approachable than Riven, certainly.

The first years set out to strip their orchids of their petals. Not enough to seriously harm their plants, but enough to gather an extract from.

Riven didn’t head straight for Musa’s table, because he did have _some_ pride left. He’d been playing the long game in this, and he wasn’t going to fold over his cards just yet.

He breezed by Bloom and Aisha’s table instead. “How’s it going, ladies?”

“You know,” Bloom said. Her shoulders bounced as she talked, and Aisha raised a steadying hand to the redhead’s arm to prevent herself from being decapitated by her shears. “It’s going.”

“Sure it is.” Riven waved a finger at her mangled flower. “Try not to set any fires, yeah? I don’t feel like cleaning up after you.”

Aisha’s forehead was all scrunched together, and she looked up at him like she was sure he wasn’t really there. “And what are you doing here, exactly?”

She’d taken the longest of all the Winx Suite to warm up to him. He still found her a bit of a stick in the mud and she still often looked like she wanted to drown him, but it was a work in progress.

Riven held up his hands. “What does it look like? Showing some first years how to plant some fucking flowers.”

Bloom laughed. Aisha didn’t, and Riven was reminded why Bloom was his favorite girlfriend of Sky’s, even if Sky was annoying as shit when he got too carried away kissing the ground she walked on.

Just as he hoped he would, he felt Musa’s gaze on him while he conversed with her friends. A smirk sprang onto his face in full force when he let himself meet her eyes, just so she knew he knew she’d been watching him.

She ducked her attention back to her orchid, but he seized the opportunity to head over. He leaned over her shoulder, pretending to check their progress.

“Hmmm. Seven out of ten shear work.”

Musa’s pigtails nearly slapped him in the face when she turned her head, and he had to rein in the urge to touch them again. “Oh. You.”

Terra glanced up at him too. Petals lay before her, like she’d been shearing for hours. Riven figured she’d been doing this shit since she was six.

“My dad didn’t say anything about you being here,” Terra said. There was a cautious smile on her face, which still caught him off guard.

“Last minute change of plans.”

He really hoped she wasn’t going to bring up a pathetic nerdy Riven story time from the last time she’d seen him in the greenhouse, because he knew Terra could make more sense of his being there than practically anyone. He didn’t want to relive that shit; not in front of Musa.

“Wouldn’t be using us to blow off your TA duties, would you?” Musa asked, tilting her chin up at him.

“Talking to first years is exactly my TA duties,” Riven shot back. He was close to her ear, and he didn’t miss the way she shifted as he spoke, like maybe it had some sort of effect on her.

If only he had half the effect on her that she had on him.

Her eyes shined violet, and for one horrifying moment, Riven thought she was getting an incriminating reading off of him. A reading that would let her know that maybe he was feeling a bit more than lust, a fact he wasn't ready to acknowledge. Possibly ever.

She blinked the color away, looking a little strained and a lot amused. His fear was quickly proven to be unfounded. “Oh yeah? Pretty sure Clay over there just cut his entire plant in half, so might want to take care of that.”

Clay was a big fucking mess. Riven didn’t know how one fool could be so clumsy, but sure enough, his orchid was hanging by a few splinters of stem, and he kept looking around like Professor Harvey was going to jump out of nowhere and strangle him with the orchid’s roots.

“What’s this?” Riven barked, and Clay just about jumped out of his skin.

It was bad enough that Sam wandered over to help. He put his hands on his hips and cocked his head, ever the picture perfect TA next to Riven’s scowl.

“That does seem to be a problem,” Sam commented.

“Aren’t you a flower fairy or some shit?” Riven waved his hands. “Fix it.”

“Uh, yeah. Earth fairy that does better with rocks.”

Fucking rocks.

Sam fingered the orchid, like he was thinking of giving it a try anyway, but then he seemed to think better of it. He craned his head towards the front of the classroom instead. “Terra! Favor, please?”

Riven was about two seconds away from swiping the orchid into the trash and procuring the kid a new one when Terra arrived to sew the cellulose back together, a big bandaide slapped over the ordeal.

The remainder of the period went by relatively as expected. Riven swung by Musa’s table whenever he felt he could get away with it to offer some snide comment that made her pretend not to laugh. Most of the students called Sam over for questions, but when he was occupied, a few desperate ones asked Riven where this tool or that tool was.

He’d never admit it, but maybe a little part of him relaxed in the greenhouse, surrounded by foliage in a place that made it easy to forget the outside world and all of its shit existed. Just a bit.

Musa and Terra were predictably getting along smoothly with their petals. They’d made grand progress grinding them up with their pestles and had proceeded in gathering the little bits into their flasks for soaking, just on time for the bell to creep closer.

Riven did a casual sweep of the room. Harvey Junior was helping a table that had somehow crashed their plant pot onto the ground, and Harvey Senior had disappeared back into a private lab room, no doubt hoping to work on his Zanbaq supply during an easy session.

Back to flirting with Musa it was. 

Riven leaned his forearms on their table, his elbow brushing Musa’s sweater-clad one. He couldn’t prevent the little burst of satisfaction when she didn’t move her arm back, so he really fucking hoped she was still deep in her non reading zone. “32 minutes ‘til lunch time.”

“Hi, Riven,” Terra said. Her smile had grown strained. “Again.”

He sneered. “You know, you should be grateful I’m here to help you. Your very own fucking TA.”

“Don’t really need a TA, do I?” Terra challenged.

“ _I_ need some space before this alcohol spills right down your shirt,” Musa interrupted, motioning him backwards with her flask. Her free hand landed on his arm, a second longer than was strictly required, and he relinquished a few inches of breathing room to her.

“You want me to take it off that badly?” he prodded. “Just ask.”

“Please don’t.” Musa rolled her eyes, but then her expression softened, just a smidge. “You eating with us today?”

He shrugged. Fought down an instinct to say _yes_ immediately, and wondered how she’d react if he said, _only if you let me sit next to you_.

He settled on, “Hm. We’ll see.”

The girls all bade him goodbye as they carted their samples off to the freezer, and Riven couldn’t help but let his smug grin fall out in full force. This whole TA plan was a stroke of brilliance on his part.

Any sense of humiliation Riven felt about the whole ordeal came crawling back when he ran into Sky in their room later than afternoon. A big ass grin spouted onto Sky’s face almost immediately, and Riven steeled himself.

“You didn’t tell me you picked _Botany_ as your punishment.”

“Piss off, man.” Riven sniffed. “There are hot first years in there. Ones who don’t try to kick my ass on the mat every day.”

He shuffled through his nightstand, hoping Sky would drop it if he acted unaffected. He just wanted to breeze in for his afternoon smoke. He didn’t ask for this bullshit, but of course this was the one time Sky had managed to detach himself from Bloom’s face.

Sky, unfortunately, wasn’t always as stupid as he looked. “What about ones who want to kick your ass every day? _Musa_ ’s in there, right?”

Riven’s shoulders stiffened. He stopped shuffling. “And what about it?”

“Come on, mate,” Sky said. His voice had grown disgustingly gentle, the way it always did when he was going to talk Riven off a ledge, or when he felt sorry for him. Riven fucking hated that tone. “It’s pretty obvious you have a thing for her, right?”

He snorted. “If you mean I wouldn’t say no to a good shag, then sure. Whatever you want to call it.”

“Riven.” Sky had taken on his disapproving Saint voice now. Riven’s hands clenched around his vape at last, stowed away under the discarded wrappers in the drawer.

Riven waved him away “No need to have a fucking coronary. I won’t wreck things for you.”

He could just imagine it. Sky’s best friend and his girlfriend’s friends were finally meshing together, finally getting along. It must seem right up Riven’s ally to waltz in and rip blow things straight to smithereens by fucking around with the girls.

What Sky said next caught him a bit off guard, though it shouldn’t have. His annoying habits of trying to tug out the softest, most fragile parts of Riven never seemed to die.

“Look, all I’m saying is that if you _did_ like Musa, it might not be so bad.”

“What are we, a couple of fucking first year girls?” Riven asked. He flung himself onto his bed, taking a draw off his vape, and some of the tension left his body almost immediately.

The expectant look didn’t vacate Sky’s face, though, and Riven rolled his eyes. He let his head loll back, gaze on the ceiling. “ _Fine_. She’s cool. She’s hot. I’m hot.”

“I knew it,” Sky said, and Riven could hear the victory in his tone without even looking at him.

“Yeah, yeah.”

“I am confused about something, though,” Sky continued.

Riven leaned up, propping himself on his elbows so he could look him in the eye. He let his brows raise in a mocking arch. “You usually are.”

Sky ignored his efforts. “Why don’t you just ask her out?”

Riven hated this. Hated that Sky was trying to make it something it very much was not. Something he refused to let it be.

He could admit that he’d spent a pathetic amount of time envying Sky on a number of things: his last name, how insufferably good he was at everything, the way everyone kissed the ground he walked on. The leash his girlfriend had fitted around his neck, the way she led him around like some fucking purse dog, was not one of them.

He scoffed. “Because I’m not some pussy-whipped wanker like you, that’s why.”

“Because stalking her in class is much more normal—“

Sky’s laugh was cut off by the pillow landing square in the center of his face.

* * *

As the days in first year Botany turned to weeks, fucking Clay was fighting neck and neck with Sam Harvey for grand prize of Riven’s least favorite chump present. For some reason he was a water fairy, not an earth fairy (Riven had debated asking him if his parents were disappointed, if he became too annoying), and he was the single most shit Botany student in existence.

“Take the plant out of the dirt. Put it in new dirt,” Riven told him, gesturing with his hands from one pot to the next.

He glanced around, looking for Sam. Normally he was the one the students came to, especially Clay, but—Riven felt a ping of something unpleasant, crawling all the way across his skin and thoroughly ruining his mood more than a horrific Botany student ever could.

Fucking Sam was occupied chatting up Musa. Or rather Musa and Terra, but did he expect Riven to think he was wearing that grin for his sister?

The negativity he was feeling must have been screaming off of him, because Musa turned totally around in her seat, forehead furrowed. Her long sheet of dark hair swayed behind her, and she was staring, staring, staring.

Riven didn’t bother to hide his glare, because she already _knew_ he was feeling negative. Now that they were _friends_ , he dreaded to think what she might pry out of him if he acted too cagey. He returned to guiding helpless as hell Clay along before she turned back to her lab work.

He didn’t go out of his way to hang around her table for the rest of the period. For once, Riven earned his worth as a TA, making his rounds and actually keeping half an eye out for anyone that looked to be struggling (He even sometimes stopped without being asked if it was a student he tolerated).

The work was mindless, and it distracted him almost as well as a good smoke. It was easy to remember why this had been his original solace at Alfea instead of fretting over just how specific the emotion he’d broadcasted to Musa earlier had been, or the fact that he was feeling it towards Sam Fucking Harvey.

In fact, it wasn’t until the class was lined up, listening to Harvey blabber about some stations he wanted them all to look at before that Musa crept up next to him.

Years of specialist training made it nearly impossible to sneak up on Riven, so he felt her before she spoke. At this point, he was so naturally attuned to her that he almost always knew it was her.

“Hi,” she said, in a low voice. She held her hands together in front of her body, and her hair fell in some flattering half up style around her face. She looked entirely too fucking appealing for someone who had a period in the greenhouse.

He wondered if she was trying to get Harvey back after all.

“Hey,” Riven grunted back. Like he was bored, or maybe vaguely in bad mood.

Her eyes traced his face, and he knew he wasn’t getting out of this easily. “Look, I’m sorry. About earlier…”

“Whatever,” he cut across her, holding up a hand. Something like hurt flashed across her face, and he was pathetically quick to add, “I know you can’t control it and shit. Wish it wasn’t my fucking head, but let’s just…”

Please fucking forget it. Don’t look into it. That’s what he wanted to say.

Musa’s body relaxed next to his, and guilt pricked at him. No doubt she’d been prepared for him to jump down her throat.

Her gaze was still on him. Hesitantly, she asked, “Everything’s alright, then?”

“Fine,” Riven said, and it really was better than fine, since she hadn’t called him out on anything more specific. Hadn't mentioned the word _jealousy,_ so he could live with the slim hope that maybe she didn't pick it out that specifically. “Just—You try to keep Clay from murdering his plants and see how fucking happy you are.”

“He is a disaster,” Musa agreed.

Professor Harvey’s attention drifted to them, so they were quick to shut their mouths. Riven could see that Musa was still biting her lip to keep from smiling, even when he moved on. His eyes lingered on it, wishing he could tug it out from between her teeth, brush his finger across it….

Harvey had to pause his speech briefly, rubbing at his chest, before continuing like nothing had happened. Riven tutted under his breath.

“Looks like he had one two many helpings from batty old Doris, if you ask me,” Riven muttered, in Musa’s ear. He couldn’t suppress his grin when a giggle slipped out of her, airy and hushed.

“Shh. That’s Terra’s dad.”

Terra’s dad. Not Sam’s dad. Riven’s smile widened, and he let his shoulder rest against hers. She pressed back, not taking her eyes off the professor. He decided he could TA for a million pathetic classes if he got to do this.

* * *

The Botany lab became one of Riven’s favorite parts of the week. Of course, if anyone ever breathed a word of it, he’d threaten to introduce them to his blades, or dunk their head in a toilet; any shit that sounded more like him. But Musa smiled at him more easily now, drifted to his side naturally to joke during lab, even talked to him more at lunch times.

He still hadn’t made a real move. If it was any other girl, he’d creep a finger up her thigh, or lean in and proposition her where no one else could hear, but any time there was the slightest opening… he pussied out.

Riven didn’t miss the way her eyes lingered on him, or the little chill bumps that sometimes danced over her skin when he got too close. He was almost reasonably confident she would be receptive, but for the first time in a long time, he found himself concerned with the outcome if she wasn’t.

He was turning into fucking Sky.

An increasing amount of afternoon free time was spent with the Winx Suite along with Sky. He liked this, usually; liked the extra time with Musa, and found himself grudgingly enjoying _them_. It was something frighteningly close to a real friend group of his very own, and he wasn’t sure what to make of it.

Sometimes, however, he very much needed time alone. To smoke, have a drink, or just bask in the pleasure of not having to put on a performance for anyone.

The library in the west wing of the school was one of his favorite retreats. If anyone else asked, it was because it was isolated and no professors expected illicit activities to be committed in the library. Truthfully, it was a leftover refuge from his first semester that he’d never totally let go of.

He was nestled deep in the tombs one Tuesday afternoon, in a corner of texts about Solarian politics that no one gave a shit about, so no one visited. The leftover tang of his vape hung in his mouth, and his homework for the week (And some from the week before) was almost completed.

His marks in magical mycology were climbing even more since he returned to the greenhouse. He shoved his papers in his bags before anyone really caught a glimpse, but he hadn’t missed the pensive looks Harvey kept shooting him over his glasses. If this turned into being asked to TA for magical mycology next term, he was going to have to fucking decline. Probably.

Something shuffled, the only sound in a sea of silence. Riven’s head shot up, reflexes hardwired for battle, and he was met with Musa’s sheepish smile.

“Sorry,” she said. Her hair was falling half free around her shoulders again, and she had on those infuriating knee high socks that made Riven’s fingers twitch in a dream of touching her thighs. Her headphones were around her neck, which usually meant she was relatively relaxed.

Every cell in his body was vibrating with her arrival. He spun his pencil around between his fingers, doing nothing more than raising a wry eyebrow on the surface. “Stalking me, are you? Crazy. I like it.”

“Stalking this corner for a quiet place to study, yeah.” Musa shuffled closer. “Wasn’t sure you knew where the library was.”

“Shove off,” he said, but he kicked out a chair, inviting her to sit if she wanted. He hoped she would; had his breath practically held that she would. “No one annoys the shit out of me in here.”

There was a flutter in his chest when she set her books down that he preferred not to dwell on.

“Don’t mind if I do,” Musa said, shooting him a little, private quirk of her lips. “Thanks.”

He grunted an acknowledgement, and then she was pulling out her textbooks like she really was planning on studying. He tried to force his attention back to his celtic runes homework, but it was even less interesting than before with her sitting across from him.

Riven was hyper aware of Musa’s presence; she was in touching distance if he stretched out his arm just ever so slightly. But the quiet was just as comfortable as the banter with Musa. There was never an obligation to fill the air with stupid, idle shit like there might be with someone else.

It was hard to pretend to study his homework rather than her smooth skin, and it wasn’t long before he gave up the pretense almost completely. She expected nothing less of him, surely, and he had a sleazy, practiced smirk ready for the inevitable moment she caught him.

When she looked up, it wasn’t to accuse him of leering.

“Be honest,” Musa said, eyes squinting together. He could tell she was struggling to contain her amusement, though, and maybe a little bit of something else. “How do you feel about quizzing me on the Botany exam?”

Riven blinked back his surprise. It was followed by an embarrassing surge of delight that she was asking _him_ , and he beat that down, too.

He kept his response cool. “The Harveys occupied, then?”

“Asking your ex for help studying is weird, don’t you think?” Musa’s eyes narrowed, a bit playfully, her chin propped on her fist. “And Terra… She’s wonderful, but studying with her gets a bit loud.”

Riven’s grin was so wide it strained his jaw. He leaned low across the table, so he could meet her eye to eye. “You like me better than the fucking Harveys.”

And the toe of her shoe snapped into his kneecap, almost hard enough to make him wince.

“You did actually pass first year Botany, correct?”

“They didn’t sit us down in a circle and say, “Let me pick the biggest fucking idiot to TA these first years” did they?” Riven made a gesture for her Botany book, and she handed it over with a coy smirk. He idly flipped the pages, looking for one of the chapters in their unit, but his mind lingered on something she’d said.

He cleared his throat. “So, I’m quiet enough for you to block out, then?”

Normally he tried to steer clear of any talk of Musa’s powers, of any possibility that she’d bring up something she might have clawed out of him. But she was here, looking serene and peaceful and it wouldn’t really hurt to get a better idea of his standings, would it?

“Loud as a train wreck,” she said, without taking her eyes off the book.

Riven scowled. “The fuck?”

Musa’s eyes finally left where his hands were fiddling with her book, shining with amusement when they met his. “You’re not loud in the same way as Terra. You have so much going on it’s like… background noise.”

“Background noise.”

“Exactly. It’s not bad," she explained. 

Riven couldn’t help but stare at her, jaw slacking a bit.

She was smiling. It was a real, vibrant smile instead of the one she put on as a mask when she was dealing with people’s bullshit, and he could practically feel her attaching the leash to his neck.

“Alright.” He flipped a page forcefully. “Give me a plant with paralytic properties. Nasty shit.”

“Narcithia.”

“Hm. Not bad.” He skimmed further down the page. “Give me a use for Rue.”

There was beat this time while Musa paused to think. “It can be used in brews for cramps. Sometimes coughs.”

Riven continued quizzing her, with her mostly getting all his questions correct with minimal prodding. He mentally patted himself on the back every time his commentary earned a breathy little laugh from her, but he was left wondering why she felt the need to be quizzed at all. She was infuriatingly natural.

It didn’t take too long for him to be confident she could get an A in her sleep. He snapped the book shut. “Sounds like you know this shit to me.”

Musa shrugged one shoulder, eyes light with glee. “Maybe. Doesn’t hurt to be sure.”

“I like the labs better. Makes me feel like it’s shit worth learning if I can get my hands on it,” Riven said, and them promptly regretted it.

His back stiffened. His little comment brought him back to days he’d rather not remember, when he’d gotten taken the piss out of at lunch because he’d rather be in the greenhouse, or when he spilled one of his potted plants in his rush to hide it from his suite mates.

Musa’s stare was burning holes into his skin, and he wiped at his nose. Avoided her gaze like the plague.

“I like you like this,” she said, and he could hear something fond in her voice. He was sure he was imagining things. His heart leapt, and of fucking course she had to be a fucking mind fairy, able to pry into his cracked edges at any second—

The first solution his mind landed on was ruining it. “What, does it remind you how bad your taste is? You like nerds, is that right?”

Musa’s expression went stilted. She paused for a moment, like she was thinking carefully about what she wanted to say. “I just like who I like. Can’t help it, unfortunately.”

She rose to her feet, stacking her books to slide back into her bag, and Riven’s stomach dropped. They’d just spent a relatively pleasant time together, and he’d shredded it into a million pieces at the first opportunity. She didn’t _look_ pissed, but there was a certain set to her mouth, like maybe she was just disappointed in the turn their conversation had taken. In him. That was somehow even worse.

“Thanks,” Musa said, sparing him a glance. Her gaze flitted back to her bag just as quickly. “I feel better about the exam now.”

“Uh,” Riven said, like a fucking idiot. He scratched his nose. Tried and failed to summon a smirk. “If you wanna go over the lab exam too, I have a free period tomorrow.”

She froze. Her gaze traced his face, like she was waiting for the other shoe to drop, or maybe preparing to laugh in his face. His fingernails bit into his palm from where he was clenching his fists under the table.

“Oh. That would, uh, be great, actually," she said.

“Yeah?” Riven said, dumbly. “Good. Great.”

Her smile was back. “Uh, text me a time then?”

* * *

Musa was waiting on him in the greenhouse the next day. Kicked back on a stool, her gorgeous thighs crossed, and wearing a look that made it hard for him not to think she was at least a little pleased to see him.

“And he decides to show,” she said, teasing because he hadn’t arrived on the dot. Hadn’t wanted to look _too_ eager.

It was a game of cat and mouse, after all. Unfortunately he was losing track of which one he was.

The ease in her eyes gave him confidence. He didn’t stop until he was practically brushing up against her, but she didn’t back down. “Excited to see me, were you?”

“You are supposed to be the guy who’s helping me ace this lab exam,” she said, kicking the toe of her doc out to nudge his hip.

He stared at her, a grin falling into place. The game was rearranging like puzzle pieces, like a jungle of vines he was struggling to navigate, but he was buzzing to figure out the new rules.

Riven may have indulged in a few fantasies of shoving her against the greenhouse tables, bodies pressed together. Of her admitting she’d asked him here with that the soul thing in mind. His hands reaching, grasping the soft parts of her he’d longed to for months, but… this was not that.

Musa really did show up to study. She may have laughed more readily, brushed his shoulder when she really didn’t have to, but she still listened closely while Riven went through the classes of plants with her. Even jotted a few things down in her notebook.

Riven of a few months ago would’ve sniggered at the fool standing in the greenhouse without the offer of a shag in sight. Would’ve said he was wasting his time.

But her company, the plants… it set him at ease in the way he hadn’t been in a long, long time.

“And this one?”

Musa leaned down against the table, eyebrows cocked in puzzlement at the plant he’d indicated. Riven tried to school his expression, but it proved to be impossible. He allowed himself a smirk, just small enough that she’d think he was mocking her for missing something.

“I’m not sure… You’re sure this is in the unit?” she asked.

Riven shrugged, palms and back braced on the table where he leaned to watch her.

She froze, eying him suspiciously.

“This is not on the exam—“ Her hand went to flip over the ID card. “ _Amorphophallus titanium-“_

He broke off into a fit of sniggers, and she rolled her eyes. “And you just wanted me to say that name,” she accused.

“The lesson is botanists are nothing but a bunch of horny, boring perverts locked in their little lab rooms.” Riven turned back around, so they were facing the same direction. His hand waved in the air as he talked, and her gaze never left his. “If you need to guess on the exam—“

“Aren’t you sort of a botanist?” Musa cut him off. There was a dot of dirt on her cheek, and her hair was falling out of the little braids she had it half pulled back in. Her face was glowing with amusement, though, and she looked fucking adorable. His pride shriveled at the thought, but he couldn’t take it back. “Makes sense.”

“Hm, perverted? Fine. Boring? Bullshit.”

She grinned down at her notebook. “Well, it has been interesting.”

“Admit it. I’m a better time than your little Harveys.” Riven was leaning in towards her again, and he pluralized Harvey at the last second. There was only one Harvey he was making jabs at, but he didn’t need to make her snappy now, didn’t want things to sully as he had in the library.

Musa tilted her head, and he knew she was on to him, but her mood didn’t seem to sway. She studied him for a moment, her face softening, and he almost didn’t notice her hands bunching into fists on the table.

“Terra isn’t really that horrible to study with,” she muttered, and it felt a little like a confession. Her gaze remained deep and dark as coffee beans, letting the _something_ swelling in his throat remain private.

The smudge of soil under her eye mocked him, screaming at him like a beacon. She’d smeared it, somehow.

“You’ve got—“ His voice was near a whisper, and his thumb moved before he really knew what he was doing, brushing the skin of her cheekbone. It was petal soft, and he lingered long after the smudge. Something disgustingly sappy reared its head in him, clawing its way out and begging him to say something really fucking stupid—

And her eyes were bright violet and he tried to pull his hand back like she was flame.

He didn’t expect her own hand to fly up, keeping it there in a steel trap. “Wait!”

Pink sprouted across her face, and he felt it warm under his touch. He’d seen a lot of looks from a lot of girls. Hook ups staring at his lips, Beatrix gazing at him in that way that promised a good time, but this was _Musa_. She was _looking_ at him, looking at him like…

Riven’s very limited capacity for holding out against doing something stupid snapped, and his fingers snagged under her jaw, pulling her forward.

She was soft and warm and tasted of _promise_ , and her lips were moving at once, a whisper of relief against his. The second he felt it, he pulled her closer to him like a drowning man in a storm, one fist cradling the side of her face, the other bunched at the hem of her sweater.

He felt her hands on him, greedy, burning holes into his skin through his shirt, and she rose up on her tiptoes to kiss him harder. Her chest brushed his, and he let out a little involuntary grunt into her mouth.

He felt her grinning, and he wanted to hear _her,_ next. Was determined to achieve it, but then she was pulling away, planting one last, butterfly kiss against his lips.

“Same,” she breathed, and it took him several moments to realize she was referencing how she’d read his emotions. To put the pieces into place that she very much had wanted to kiss him, too.

Riven didn’t find words. His dirtiest grin flashed across his face, and he shifted them so her spine was pressed against the table, one hand drifting down to brace himself on it.

“Settled, then,” he managed to whisper, and then she was yanking him back down for another kiss.

They passed several minutes that way, warm bodies and wandering hands and soft laughs. It wasn’t that Riven had no desire for more, didn’t ache for more, but he couldn’t remember the last time he’d been so satisfied with something so relatively innocent.

It was, of course, her who pulled back again. She was biting her lip to reign in her smile again, and this time Riven did reach up and pull it from between her teeth. She pressed a kiss to his thumb, and he shivered.

“Unfortunately I do still have an exam tomorrow,” she said, though she made no move to push him away.

“The exam can fuck off.”

“Shall I tell Harvey you said that?”

There was another moment of them just grinning each other, and even though he’d just had his lips and hands all over her, Riven’s mouth dried all of a sudden. 

“Musa,” he started. Her fingers were buried in his shirt, brushing his collarbones, and still he felt like he had a frog in his throat, more pathetic than when he’d tried to ask a girl to the specialist party his first semester. “Do you… Would you—“

“Yes,” she interrupted, and for once, there was no spark of annoyance or fear at the fact that her eyes were a flickering purple. She gave him a little, sheepish smile that he couldn’t quite process amidst the spinning in his head. “You are, uh, asking me out, right? Or else this is a bit awkward.”

“Wait, really? I mean, yes. Great.”

Musa teetered forward, looking as happy as he’d ever seen her, and he thought she might lean up to kiss him again. Instead, her forehead fell in the crook of his neck, her face buried in his skin.

He squeezed her, reflexively, and he had never done this. This bizarre hybrid hug cuddling abomination, but he couldn’t seem to pull the grin off his face.

“I hoped maybe you would, after Bloom pointed out that you kept hanging around,” she said, against him, and it came out a little like a laugh.

His grip slackened, and he didn’t realize he’d been playing with the ends of her hair until he froze with the strands between his fingers. “Wait. What’s that supposed to mean?”

Musa pulled back in his grip, but only to smile up at him. Her hands slid around his neck, gentle, and he wished to melt into the touch. “They thought you were being kind of obvious, I guess. You know.”

“Fuck them. I wasn’t that obvious.” So what if he was? Musa was in his arms. Who was the real winner here?

Musa’s eyebrows rose, prepared to give him hell, and he had a feeling he would be seeing a lot of that expression. Had a feeling he might love it a lot.

(Might even love her, a lot, but he wasn’t ready to go there just yet).

“Like a bee to honey,” she said.

He shushed her with another kiss.

**Author's Note:**

> I love comments so much and would appreciate any you have dearly!  
> I also love to talk about Rivusa, so please feel free to come visit my tumblr "alphinias"


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